1. Making connections
Clare Brooks
GTE 2008

2. Summary My research findings Reflect on John Dewey
Implications for ‘new’ National Curriculum

3. Background Researching “knowledge” is complex
Teachers transform their subject knowledge
Pedagogical Content Knowledge
What we know about geography teachers …
Eclectic and dynamic subject
Jewitt - specialism affects how they teach
Barrett-Hacking- specialism is suspended

4. My research … Focus on “expert” geography teachers
how they understand geography
how they teach geography
Influences on their practice
5 “cultures of influence”
Focus here is on use of SK in classroom practice

5. 3 strategies observed Students Geography students’ experience
prior geographical knowledge
teacher’s experience (or story)

6. Synoptic Capacity
“the ability to draw strands of a field together in a way that provides both coherence and meaning, to place what is known in context and opens the way for connections to be made between the knower and the known” (Rice, 1992, p 125)

7. John Dewey “psychologise” the subject
Teachers have to create the right bridge
“logical” organisation of experience & reflections of others - the “map”
Child’s experience

8. “The unity of all the sciences is found in geography.”

9. Relevance today?
Smith & Girod - teachers don’t psychologise the subject - but receive it

10. Challenges for ITE Then will be able to “psychologise” the subject
Understanding subject as the “map”
Getting to see students as unique
Then will be able to “psychologise” the subject

11. A starting point … 3 strategies
Through their experience
Through their previous learning
Through narrative
But also has implications for thinking about how structure the whole curriculum
Does it relate to students’ experience?
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